Higher education ministry detects more than 1,200 fake certificates

Muscat: More than 1,200 cases of fake certificates have been registered in the Sultanate, according to the Ministry of Higher Education.
Al Nasr Al Ruqaishi from the Qualification Equivalency & Recognition Department said, “There will be no mercy shown when it comes to fake certificates. They will be sent directly to the Public Prosecution.”
“Fake certificates are not new. We have had 1,250 cases from 1975, 117 of which involved fake seals, 108 for fraudulent qualifications, and 25 of which were certificates from entirely fictitious institutions,” he added..
In this regard, the Ministry of Manpower said: “The Ministry confirms that it requires the original qualifications approved by the competent authorities before authorising the recruitment of the workforce and does not accept any certificates not certified and approved by the competent authorities in accordance with the regulations followed.”
“The Ministry of Manpower confirms that it will exert efforts in checking suspicious practices through an inspection, follow-up and continuous coordination with the competent authorities and take legal fees from violators in this regard,” the Ministry of Manpower added.
The ministry asked institutions not to accept any certificates from employees without approval from the specialist authorities.
The Manpower Ministry added: “It is also necessary to distinguish between the examination of scientific certificates at the start of work of the employee and the qualifications and other certificates obtained after joining work, which must be disclosed to the officials at the workplace, and therefore the body must make sure that the certificates were subject to accreditation procedures from the specialist authorities.”
“The ministry would like to clarify that there are global e-platforms, which do not strictly dictate the information written in the CVs of the users of this service.”
The ministry added: “These platforms follow informal bodies, and anyone can write down whatever they like in certificates, for experience, and work designation and it may be not true, and the institutions do not depend on this information while hiring.”
The Ministry of Higher Education said in a statement, “When looking to have a certificate equated with an Omani certificate, the application must be processed through the MoHE website. The electronic application will be transferred to the attaché in the country of study, where the certificate and university will be checked. Only then, will the grades be inspected.”
In case the committee agrees, the certificate will be equated. If there is a fake degree or university in question, the application is handed over to the Public Prosecution, Ministry of Manpower for non-Omanis, as well as the workplace of the applicant.”
The department has approved 12,605 applications to be equated between 2015 and 2018, Al Ruqaishi added. Furthermore, 16,678 certificates were ratified, and 7,265 students were approved to continue their studies.
Al Ruqaishi said, “The community coming together and interacting over the issue is proof of our society’s maturity when it comes to this plague. We assure the community that the ministry has always been sure to inform the society regarding all the statistics, laws, and updates when it comes to the ratification and equation of certificates.”